Hidden Figures
WIRED|June 2018

Silicon Valley’s Salary Cabal

Hidden Figures

WHEN STEVE, A THIRTY SOMETHING engineer, launched a software company in San Francisco a few years ago, he and his co-founder faced the daunting task of hiring a team, from low-level engineers to a new VP. Novices, they nonetheless had an advantage: access to Option Impact, an exclusive database of tech salaries that has become a go-to reference for Silicon Valley startups. That insider information, Steve realized, has immense value. “You get into the venture capitalist club and get all the magical data, which puts you in a power position,” he says. He recalls walking away from negotiations with a newly hired employee thinking, “Man, this guy is underpaid—we got a good deal.”

This story is from the June 2018 edition of WIRED.

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This story is from the June 2018 edition of WIRED.

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